Saint Macrina

Disturbed in their solitude by the vexations of turbulent lords, of whom Sain t Columba was sainte Colombe Sister of Saint Macrina and companion in her early works. even a victim, the two other virgins took flight. After seven days of walking through forests and deserted places, overwhelmed by fatigue, they stopped to take some rest; but suddenly Macrina saw her companion turn pale and expire almost immediately in her arms. Assisted by some local Christians, she had the remains of Pecina transported to a village very close to Nio Pécine Spanish companion of Macrina, who died of exhaustion during their flight. rt, on the right bank of the Sèvre. This village, then called Tauniniens, later took the name of the Blessed one, and it is today Sainte-Pézanne Sainte-Pézanne Burial place of Saint Pecina. (Deux-Sèvres).

However, M acrina Macrine Sister of Saint Basil, cited as a model of an educating sister. eventually discovered a deep retreat: she settled there. The name of the Saint, which these places still bear today, and the existence of the remains of an ancient chapel, all confirm popular tradition on this point. But as this retreat was not yet secure enough, the holy maiden crossed the Sèvre again, landed on the small island of Magné, and placed hers île de Magné Site of the final hermitage and cult of Saint Macrina. elf behind the belt of marshes that formed a rampart inaccessible to the world. It was there, on a wild plateau, that Macrina established her dwelling and lived in the practice of the most sublime virtues. She died in peace in her dear solitude around the year 850.

The populations she had edified immediately flocked to her tomb. Their gratitude raised altars to Macrina, named the plateau she had inhabited the Butte de Sainte-Macrine, and this name, which it still bears, testifies to the perseverance of a well-deserved cult. Soon a chapel was built in honor of the Saint, and was served by priests whom successive foundations attached to this work of piety, which was the origin of the collegiate church of Magné, establish ed in 1508. Then, w collégiale de Magné Site of the final hermitage and cult of Saint Macrina. hen the dark days dispersed the ministers of the altar and the stones of the altar itself, tradition survived everything that the hand of man had destroyed; the ruins were honored, in their sad nakedness, by pious pilgrims who still venerated the memory of what they could no longer see or touch as before. However, calm having succeeded the storm, a fortunate chance led to the discovery, some forty years ago, of a sarcophagus containing a woman's skeleton, whose precious remains were carefully deposited within the very mass of the chapel's altar.

Eager populations flocked on certain days, especially on July 6, to invoke this powerful virtue whose effects they have many times felt. Testimonies worthy of full confidence place the number of pilgrims who annually visit the hermitage of Macrina at four thousand, and serious men estimate that this devotion has contributed greatly to preserving a remnant of faith among the surrounding populations, so tormented by the spirit of indifference and incredulity.

Among the popular images that represent Saint Macrina, there are two that seem more than all others to provide the reason for this persevering rural cult. One reproduces a miracle of charity performed by Macrina at the prayer of a plowman whose ox is healed of a hideous wound. The Saint is represented holding in her hand the horn that she is about to weld to the mutilated forehead of the poor animal. In another page, Macrina, in the form of an angel, hovers in the middle of the air; kneeling at the door of her canoness, a hardworking family invokes the Saint in favor of the harvest that the plowman's plow is preparing in the distance, and Macrina, pulling fertile grains from her apron, throws them from the height of the sky into the furrow that she blesses.

Abridgment of the biography provided by Mr. Ch. de Char M. Ch. de Chargé Author of the original biography of the saints of Poitou. gé, in Les Vies des Saints du Poitou Les Vies des Saints du Poitou Hagiographical work serving as a source for the text. .